Apologies for those hoping for some writing last week. I was away. I’m back. So you get double posts for your money this week.
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Last time, I wrote about what a good book series can give you – and why so many kids love a good follow-up story. And another. And another.
It seems only fair to take a closer look at a few series of children’s books: ones that went down well with Junior Reader, with me as the read-out-louder, or with me at an earlier age.
Some of these may not seem so much like series: but there are plenty more in that range, and they rely on similar formulae for success. See what you think.
In the interests of fairness (aka talking about as many books as possible), today I’ll focus on picture books in series, and do some chapter book series another time.
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Hairy Maclary, Slinky Malinky et al
Hairy Maclary started life at Donaldson’s Dairy, in New Zealand, but has happily made his way around the world and into the hearts of many, adults and children alike.
Kids love stories about animals – particularly animals that misbehave and get away with it. Sometimes Hairy Maclary intends to cause trouble – sometimes it seems to follow him, particularly in connection with visits to the vet.
If your child loves language – or the grown-up doing the reading does – Hairy Maclary is for you. Happily including words like ‘bumptious’, ‘bellicose’, all spun into rollicking rhymes, the text romps along almost as much as the characters.
Hairy Maclary is the small scruffy dog in the pack, but there are plenty of identifiable types, including a dachshund (the wonderous Schnitzel von Krumm), a dalmatian, an Old English sheepdog, and more besides.
Every hero needs a villain, and Hairy Maclary’s main villain is Scarface Claw, ‘the toughest Tom in town’. For all of Hairy Maclary’s bravado, Scarface Claw will soon remind him who’s boss.
But lest there be too much division between dog lovers and cat lovers, there is the anti-hero cat Slinky Malinky, as well as the plucky Zachary Quack, a small duckling who is also well able to cause chaos, usually without much trying.
The illustrations are slightly cartoony, with lots of colour and fun. And I have to commend the author for conveying things like cats’ hissing noises as well as she does – not an easy task.
With four separate heroes, and some overlap between them in stories, this may feel less of a series than some, but the same ingredients are there: romping, mayhem, surprises, great verse and spiky, humorous illustrations.
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I have a soft spot for Topsy and Tim. And I’m sure others of my age do, or there wouldn’t be a kids’ TV series now, as well as a reissuing of the books.
Topsy and Tim are boy and girl twins respectively. Seemingly constantly at a pre-school stage, they are of an age where they are learning about the world, but with plenty of free time to do so.
This gives them pretty much limitless scope to do everyday things, like visit the doctor, watch firewords, explore farms and so on. They also learn from mistakes: my copies from the 1970s include them going hillwalking without permission, getting lost on a ferry and so on.
Over time, Topsy and Tim’s activities have broadened out, including a bit more cultural awareness. A newer one we own has Topsy and Tim getting to know Sikh neighbours – but they are equally busy with visits from builders, trips to the seaside, and so on.
Part of what works about the series is that it is immediately gender-neutral. Both girl and boy twins experience the same situations together, both enjoy a wide range of opportunities, and it is refreshing for that.
The books are also very good at getting the detail of what children see. In the hillwalking story, the children wrap their belongings in orange cloth that gets wet in the rain, and dyes almost everything in their packs.
In the story with the Sikh family, the children learn different names for grandparents, and are still interested in sweets – even if they are new to them.
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Little Princess may seem less neutral a character to start with, but don’t let that fool you.
The lead character has plenty of experiences that appeal to boys and girls alike, whether it’s dealing with potty training, wanting more than one birthday, wanting to be taller, and so on.
Little Princess, despite seemingly spending all her time in her plain white nightie and gold crown, is really a rebel and an opportunist. In order to play shops, she borrows items from the various people at the castle, and sells them back to other people – until everyone finds out.
Part of the appeal is that Little Princess, being a princess, can get what she wants a bit more than most children. But, as she discovers, getting what she wants – like more than one birthday a year – doesn’t always work out as she expects.
For the adults, a lot of the fun is the ensemble cast. Little Princess has plenty of stubbornness, but she needs others to be a foil to her wilfulness.
And being a princess, she not only has a mum and dad, but also a doctor, the Prime Minister, the Admiral, the gardener, the cook, and others who are personalities in their own right.
Still unsure? They are by Tony Ross, genius illustrator, who can also write a mean story. And she’s on TV now too. Proof.
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In case I need to do any more convincing, here’s another wonderful series with Tony Ross illustrations. In fact, probably my favourite picture book duo: Jeanne Willis on words, Tony Ross on pictures.
Dr Xargle is an alien, attempting to explain to its school class how Earth works. Inevitably, certain elements of life on earth are not understood quite as we do – which means that the aliens’ fleet often times its visits to Earth at less than auspicious times.
The draw here, in terms of a series, is the limitless number of general topics that Dr Xargle can hold forth about. So we learn about babies, dogs, cats, the weather, and other family members.
The learned Dr Xargle does not just focus on the stuff that goes OK – it also notices the little accidents that make children laugh, involving babies’ nappies, pets leaving little presents in the wrong places and so on.
The additional huge charm of Dr Xargle is the (seemingly unintentional)Â mangling of language. This is greatly appealing for the adults reading the stories, although it may take a slightly older child to know enough of how we normally describe things to then perceive the joke.
Our first acquisition was the one about weather, and I am still sure that Dr Xargle’s description of getting wet – ie ‘going soggy in the rainblob‘ – has yet to be bettered.
Again, there’s a sharp eye for detail. I particularly like the illustrations that go with ‘too windy’ weather, including a cat’s fur turning inside out, wigs going astray, and an unexpected viewing of bloomers that are ‘a present from Torquay Zoo‘.
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Whatever your favourites, there’s enough of the good stuff in each of the books to know what to expect next time.
Whether it’s zany illustrations, sticking up for others, exposing adults’ attitudes, or simply exploring the world, picture books series are great fun, whoever’s reading and whoever’s listening.